What is it about Revealing Secrets that is Beneficial?

Abstract

Given the substantial evidence described in the previous chapter that revealing private traumatic or negative experiences is associated with psychological and physiological benefits, the question remains, Why is revealing secrets helpful? One commonly held view among scientists is that through gaining new insights into the secrets people feel better about them. Another idea is that through venting emotions or gaining catharsis people come to feel better about their secrets. In this chapter, I review the evidence on these two ideas and then describe in detail a pair of studies that my students and I conducted (Kelly et al., 2001) in which we teased apart the effects of gaining new insights versus catharsis.